Ponting sends warning shot with Shield ton

Ricky Ponting scored 162 not out for the Tasmanian Tigers against Victoria.

Getty Images: Lucas Dawson

Ricky Ponting fired a warning shot to Graeme Smith's South Africans ahead of next month's Brisbane Test by scoring a superb 162 not out for Tasmania in their Sheffield Shield clash with Victoria.

Tasmania declared half an hour after lunch at the MCG on Wednesday at 5 for 439 after Ponting had struck 20 fours and one six in a superb 242-ball display in an innings lasting almost six hours.

Victoria stumbled to 4 for 132 at stumps with Andrew McDonald on 11 and Matthew Wade on 13.

Rob Quiney (5) fell in the second over and Chris Rogers (32) was caught on the leg-side boundary at 2 for 68.

David Hussey (28) hit a catch to point to make it 3 for 103 and Cameron White (31) was out three runs later after popping a slower ball from Jackson Bird (2 for 35) to mid-on.

Bird has claimed 64 wickets in his first 11 Shield matches.

The 37-year-old Ponting has scored 290 runs at an average of 145.00 in Shield cricket this season.

"For me against a really good Victorian attack to spend that amount of balls at the crease and come away undefeated with a big hundred under my belt is perfect for what I've got coming up in the next few weeks," Ponting said.

"I feel like I'm actually on top of batting again. Batting is starting to feel a bit easier than it did 12 months ago."

Proteas skipper Smith said this week he felt he had the fast bowlers at his disposal to exploit Ponting's previous issue with falling across his stumps and being vulnerable to lbw dismissals early in his innings.

"It's water off a duck's back. I've had opposition teams trying to pick my technique apart for 20 years and I've managed to find a way to combat things most of the time," Ponting said.

"Australian teams have been able to mentally pull apart opposition teams and opposition players. But I'm pretty sure Graeme knows it won't work with me."

Despite averaging 108.80 in last summer's four-Test series against India, Ponting still felt his batting was a work in progress at that stage.

"I had to work exceptionally hard on things through the summer on my game. I haven't had to work as hard on those little aspects," he said.

"I feel like I'm in control of things again.

"Any batsmen will tell you if they're hitting the ball well down the ground, it generally means that they're playing well.

"All the shots of old this week were there. The on-drives and lots of good pull shots this game as well."

Tasmania had resumed on its overnight score of 3 for 315 with the 37-year-old Ponting on 89.

Medium-pacer John Hastings (2 for 58) was Victoria's only multiple wicket-taker after removing skipper George Bailey (19) and Tim Paine (14) in the opening session on Wednesday.

Ponting reached his 78th first-class century off 144 deliveries.

Test cricket's second-leading run-scorer had some luck on 141 when Peter Siddle (1 for 99) dropped a hard-hit return catch.

Siddle's Test team-mate James Pattinson returned 0 for 89 with national chairman of selectors John Inverarity looking on.